(2024) Another 0% alcohol drink, the base fruit sourced from La Mancha in Spain, a blend of oaked Petit Verdot and Tempranillo. The wine was de-alcoholised using technology then blended with "a handful of natural ingredients." The colour is an inky, dark crimson, the aroma a little spicy and smoky, perhaps reminiscent of a dark fruited bread or chocolate-coated fruit cake. In the mouth quite a nice texture - some creaminess - and the flavour is of dark berry fruits and vanilla. I'd chill it.
(2024) This zero percent drink started off life as a blend of Airen and Tempranillo from La Mancha, with the alcohol subsequently removed. It is blended with natural ingredients including elderflower and ginger. The nose is fairly neutral, with a little hint of something herbal but not much in the way of fruit. In the mouth, like all such products, it just feels dilute and rather anonymous; there's a lemony acidity and again some herbal flavours and a hint of redcurrant.
(2024) I preferred this to the Elan rosé also tasted. It's a similar product, wine from La Mancha in Spain with alcohol removed, blended with ingredients including ginger and elderflower. Those aromatics come through on the nose, along with a gentle peachiness. In the mouth it does feel dilute, but also reminiscent of a dry Muscat or perhaps a simple Airen or Albillo from the La Mancha region with lemon and some herb and lightly salty notes. It has more wine-like character than the pink for me.
(2023) 100% Verdejo, this was made in a combination of clay amphora and large French oak vats, with regular pumping over to extract colour and phenolics from the skins. The usually punchy, elderflower aromatics of the Verdejo have been subsumed into much more herby, citrus aromas, a touch of kaolin and then clove-studded orange spice. In the mouth, again none of the tropical fruitiness one might expect from Verdejo, this is dry and savoury, invoking a hessian-like image, nutty and spicy into a super dry finish.
(2021) El Vinculo is part of the Grupo Pesquera, and this from 25-year-old vines in La Mancha, at 650- to 750-metres altitude, is aged 24 months in American oak. Bright cherry/ruby red, the nose is attractive, like a pot-pourri of berries, spices, vanilla and tobacco. In the mouth there is surprising energy and spark given the nose promised a more lush character perhaps, but there is plenty of depth of fruit, there is that vanilla and light woodsmoky fragrance, and the balance is good: tannins tight, but the acid rippling across the finish.
(2019) From La Mancha in the south of Spain, a Chardonnay that is unoaked, but four months of ageing on the lees has added some creamy richness to the apple and pear fruit, Well-balanced, with good lemony acidity, if simple. No UK retailer at time of review.
(2017) Super deep and glossy in colour, this unusual Spanish Malbec has a soaring aromatic, really expressive of the variety's floral-touched, kirsch like character, a touch of blackberry and light smokiness too. In the mouth the approachable delights continue to unfold, with sweet and ripe black fruit, gentle tannins and a pinch of tart acidity to keep it fresh. It's a charmer rather than a bruiser, and all the better for that.
